Beat the Clock!

A website can make or break a brand. Of all the potential touch-points a consumer has with a brand, the website is often their first impression. Unfortunately it could also be their last. This presents a daunting challenge for web designers who are commonly tasked with creating engaging brand experiences. Research from the NN Group found that the typical amount of time a brand has to convince a first-time user to remain on a web page is just 3-5 seconds. In those initial seconds, a web page needs to be engaging, informative and easy to use. It should reflect the personality of the brand and should serve as a catalyst for the brand’s e-commerce objectives. What it should not do is frustrate consumers and have them heading for the virtual door.

This week in IMC 619, we discussed a number of ways to improve the effectiveness of a website. Our topics covered the spectrum from Accessibility to the Z-axis. But as someone who is more user than designer, I’m fascinated by those 3-5 seconds. What is engaging? What do users want? After giving it some thought, I’ve decided that consumers want interaction and ownership. A web site should be collaborative. It should be a platform for communicating with customers rather than marketing to them. And while this concept may be de rigueur for social media practices, it’s often overlooked on traditional web pages. Therefore, one solution may be to incorporate user-generated content into the home pages of brand websites.

First, the experience should move quickly (remember those 3-5 seconds). For this reason, there is almost no need for large images on a home page. Large images add to the overall page weight, and are the biggest culprit for slowing down loading times. In fact, images account for roughly 50% of page weight for many of the top global websites. This is an easy place to improve performance. Consumers should interact with the brand, not the site. Tick, tick, tick…

Next, social media links and user-generated content should be quickly visible on the page. In an Adweek article this week, Offerpop’s Kevin Bobowski suggested that developing a brand’s image over a period of decades is becoming a thing of the past. Brand relationships are now formed much faster through social interactions, and these interactions are essential for creating a meaningful brand experience. Indeed, consumer expectations of a brand experience are changing. Roger Katz, founder of Friend2Friend suggests that consumers now expect a more social experience from a brand website. “They expect to see a more social world reflected. They expect to see friends, or at least ‘real’ people. They expect to be engaged and entertained. And they expect to be able to participate.” Meeting these expectations is vital, as consumers will quickly share opinions of a brand with their social networks – good or bad. Tick, tick, tick…

Content is king. Brands like Coca-Cola know this, and are already incorporating social into their websites. By aggregating authentic, user-generated content, brand websites can become more engaging; turning seconds into minutes and visitors into customers.

Time’s up. What do you think? Should brands have a separate social voice? Or can brands increase website engagement by aggregating social streams on their web pages?